New laws will see men and women receive their pension at the same age, but could this change in the law see women lose out and widen the gender pension gap?
From 6 November 2018, for the first time in more than 70 years, men and women will receive their pension from the same age
This will be 65 for those reaching that age between 6 November 2018 and 5 December 2018, and then it gradually begins increasing, first to 66 and then to 67. This brings to an end more than seven decades of women receiving their state pension earlier than men.
While some may see this as a step towards equal treatment, it actually means women are a step back compared to men with pensions. The change to women’s state pension age adds further weight to what we already know: that the pension gender gap is a concern, said, Steven Cameron is pensions director at Aegon to HR Magazine.
Women on average have far less in their private and workplace pensions than men, leading to a significant gender pensions gap. Research carried out by Aegon shows that women are more likely than men to have no pension arrangements in place; 15 per cent of women compared to 11 per cent of men are failing to pay into a pension plan of any kind.
Aegon research shows that this difference is reflected in confidence levels among males compared to females. Thirteen per cent of men (compared to 6 per cent of women) are very confident that they will have ample funds for retirement.
By the time women reach age 50 they have on average only half the private pension savings (ยฃ56,000) of their male counterparts (ยฃ112,000). At age 30 the average female pension fund is ยฃ21,029, compared to the average male pension pot at ยฃ27,688. Even early on in their career, at age 30, women need to contribute an extra ยฃ21 a month to close the gap on men. By age 50 this has risen to an extra ยฃ360 a month, showing it pays to address any shortfall in savings as quickly as possible.
Looking to the future, the governmentโs auto-enrolment initiative should help. However, projections from the Office for National Statistics show that a man currently aged between 25 to 34 putting money into a pension in line with the governmentโs auto-enrolment contributions is expected to have a pension pot of ยฃ142,836 at age 68, compared with ยฃ126,784 for a woman in the same age bracket.
There are a number of barriers to women saving as much as their male counterparts for their retirement. A womanโs ability to save for retirement is often interrupted by breaks in her career such as to raise a family or care for elderly parents.
A womanโs ability to save into a private pension is severely limited if she is not earning. But under UK tax rules she can pay in up to ยฃ3,600 (including 20 per cent tax relief) in such circumstances, which could come from the familyโs total income.
Additionally, women can be disproportionately excluded from auto-enrolment if they earn below the ยฃ10,000 earnings threshold. Government data in 2016 showed that 31 per cent of eligible female workers earned less than ยฃ10,000 a year. Women are also more likely than men to have multiple jobs, where they earn less than ยฃ10,000 a year in each job so miss out on auto-enrolment within each.
The equalisation of state pension age, and future planned increases, are a further prompt to women to think about how much theyโll need to save privately for a comfortable retirement.
